Chapter 13: Sefina
The cryo-chamber hisses and puffs gray clouds when I open the door. Frigid air spills into the room. I toss Quris’ hand aside and step back. I can’t even get close to the doorway without shivering. How a Titan has managed to endure that, I have no idea.
“Come on. I won’t hurt you,” I say. “We’re taking a tunnel out of here. I’m Sefina, a friend of Menace’s.”
“Fracture,” a voice shudders out. Clouds coalesce. Fragments find one another and slowly reassemble into a Titan shape.
He lifts his head. Vibrant silver-blue eyes meet mine. “And I know you won’t, sentinel. It is good to be among friends again. Not many of your kind left.”
His words and movements are slow, but he rises and climbs out of his cell like every joint aches, and he hasn’t moved them in years. “Do not touch me, or I will kill you.”
“Nice to meet you, too,” I snort.
“I mean, the temperature of my body will kill you.”
“I copied.” I’m disheartened at the idea that I might be the last of my kind. Even this Titan I’ve never met senses we’re a dying breed. My parents are gone, and my siblings disappeared during the final rush to get the resistance fighters off-world. The last time I saw anyone like myself was when Quris’ men captured me.
Traitorous CSP. Fuck all of you.I wonder if they’re all dead—the soldiers from his crew.Jo— Johnson? Jonathan? Jared?I can’t remember their names. But I’ll never forget their faces.
“Sefi—” Menace groans.
When I turn around, I see the radiant bodies rushing our way from down the hallway—a squad of Solcrue, no doubt by their shimmering pulse. “On the lift, hurry!”
Fracture hoists himself onto the platform, making it wobble. He keeps his distance from Menace and Sythius as I take the controls.
A squad of Solcrue enters and fires at us with flaming green bullets. I duck as gravel rains from the cavern’s walls and then bank us down the passageway far faster than they can run.
Fracture’s body smokes like dry ice, leaving a foggy trail as I sprint us along the corridor.
Flashbacks hit me in waves, bringing back images of that final race on Earth Minor to get the last Titan techs and officers to the NightWave, then staying behind to keep the underground CSP squads and Solcrue from preventing takeoff. And then Cerzsl captured me with his grav-gun.
“How do you know where you’re going?” Sythius asks.
“Saw a map on the desk while Quris was deeply in torture mode. Everyone hang on.”
The cavern blooms with fire from the timed grenade I learned to build from Bomber in the tunnels.
“I am—impressed,” Sythius remarks from the far edge of the platform. “But I guess I never got to see you when you were a guard on Earth Minor. I only knew you in servitude.”
Menace snorts at his remark, then groans. “Never underestimate a pissed-off female.”
“Good advice.” I guide us into a cavern filled with hot springs and crags of red in deep mine shafts. I skirt us through the stifling zone and into another passageway.
Solcrue hate heat. I try to put as many barriers as possible between us while heading toward the Bone Valley outpost Sythius confirmed has the range extender.
The heat seems to thaw out Fracture. He weakly gathers Menace in his arms and assesses his Brother. “You are severely damaged. Why did you not heal yourself?”
I am equally curious.
Menace grimaces and holds his stomach. “How many years of fighting can you handle without winning a battle before you start to wonder what the point is of fighting?”
“I think you are more upset over Mintaka. You forget that we feel what others feel.”
“It’s not just her.”
Fracture gives me a worried look. “Do you have any supplies to help him? You carry a lot of gear.”
I set the bag down. “Take whatever you need for both of you. We can do more intense repairs soon.”
